Iran Hit Ships Near Hormuz. Samsung Missed the Whisper. Bitcoin Reclaimed $63,000. SpaceX Enters the Nasdaq 100.

The first is Samsung.

The company projected a record ₩58.4 trillion in second quarter operating profit, about nineteen times higher than a year ago. Investors sold the news anyway. Samsung fell 6.9%, SK Hynix lost 6.1%, and South Korea's Kospi dropped 4.91%, triggering its second circuit breaker in two weeks.

The second story is semiconductors.

Micron (MU) fell roughly 5% before the open. KLA (KLAC), Marvell Technology (MRVL), Applied Materials (AMAT), Lam Research (LRCX), and ASML (ASML) all traded sharply lower as investors continued reducing exposure after the sector's historic first half.

The third story is SpaceX.

SPCX officially joins the Nasdaq 100 before today's open. Passive funds are expected to buy roughly $4.3 billion of shares against a public float of only 3% to 5%, making today's rebalance one of the largest mechanical trading events of the year.

The Dow enters the session above 53,000 for a second straight day.

The Signal

Record profits are no longer enough. The AI trade now has to beat expectations that investors never published.

The Magnificent Seven reshaped the market, but leadership rarely stays concentrated forever.

As these giants mature, history shows leadership rotates toward companies with growing cash flows and scalable business models.

Our analysts believe that shift is already underway.

That’s why they created These 7 Stocks Will Be Magnificent in the second half of 2026, a FREE report highlighting the next group positioned to step into market leadership.

Download your free report today.

Iran's Revolutionary Guard fired missiles at two commercial ships near the Strait of Hormuz late Monday. One vessel, the LNG tanker Al Rekayyat, caught fire after being struck near its engine room. No casualties were reported.

The attack follows Iranian warnings over the weekend that ships using the U.S.-backed Omani corridor remained potential targets.

Oil moved higher.

Brent rose 1.6% to about $73.10 while WTI climbed 1.5% to roughly $69.60.

The move comes just days after OPEC+ approved another 188,000 barrel per day production increase for August, while Saudi Arabia lowered official selling prices to Asian buyers.

Supply continues improving.

Political risk returned.

Energy Signal

The shipping corridor stayed open, but the ceasefire cracked again. Oil is now balancing rising supply against renewed geopolitical risk.

Japan's 10-year government bond yield climbed to 2.85%, its highest level in three decades. U.S. Treasury yields also moved higher, with the 10-year approaching 4.50%. German and U.K. government bond yields followed the same direction.

That matters well beyond Japan.

For years, ultra-low Japanese interest rates helped finance global carry trades and kept borrowing costs lower across financial markets. That anchor is beginning to disappear.

The move partly offsets last week's softer U.S. payroll report, which reduced expectations for another near-term Fed hike.

Attention now turns to Wednesday's FOMC minutes, the first detailed record from Kevin Warsh's June meeting.

Macro Signal

The U.S. rate outlook softened last week. Global bond markets hardened this week. Tomorrow's minutes may decide which trend matters more.

Eric Fry was one of the first to say “Sell Nvidia.” Instead, he pointed to a little-known AI hardware company with almost no competition.

While Nvidia’s customers turn into rivals, hyperscalers are fighting to buy more from this firm — not replace it.

This week? A historic $6B deal and the biggest surge in two decades.

And Fry says this may only be the beginning.

Get the full story here.

Meta Platforms (META) continues exploring ways to rent excess AI computing capacity. Bernstein estimates Meta already operates roughly 20 gigawatts of AI infrastructure with another 14 gigawatts under construction.

If Meta rents capacity, investors may conclude hyperscalers built more infrastructure than they currently need.

Combined 2026 capital spending by Meta, Microsoft (MSFT), Amazon (AMZN), and Alphabet (GOOGL) is expected to reach roughly $710 billion.

Elsewhere, Galaxy Digital (GLXY) completed the transition of its Helios site from a bitcoin mine into a 133-megawatt AI data center for CoreWeave (CRWV). Chinese AI competition also continues growing as Alibaba (BABA) expands its own ecosystem.

Capital Signal

The AI debate is shifting from how much companies can build to whether those investments will generate acceptable returns.

ETF flows finally turned positive.

Spot Bitcoin ETFs attracted $265.7 million on Monday, the largest daily inflow in more than a month. BlackRock's (BLK) IBIT accounted for roughly $209 million. Ether ETFs also recorded positive flows.

The bigger concern remains Strategy (MSTR).

The company disclosed it sold 3,588 bitcoin for roughly $216 million last week, including $135 million during July, as it continues adapting its funding model.

Its mNAV valuation premium briefly fell below one, reversing the financial structure that previously allowed Strategy to issue expensive equity and buy additional bitcoin.

Meanwhile, Binance introduced a covered-call bitcoin yield product, another sign that institutional investors increasingly want bitcoin to generate income rather than rely only on price appreciation.

The Verdict

ETF demand finally returned. Strategy continues selling. Bitcoin's next move depends on which trend proves stronger.

This little-known building in Pasadena is where I learned about a kind of investment most people never get access to. Twenty years later, that same opportunity is wide open again. And it's all because of what's about to happen to OpenAI and Anthropic.

Get your free ticker here.

This ad is sent on behalf of InvestorPlace Media at 1125 N. Charles Street, Baltimore, Maryland 21201. If you're not interested in this opportunity, please click here.

Tuesday begins with markets questioning several assumptions at once.

Samsung proved record earnings no longer guarantee higher prices.

Iran proved the Strait of Hormuz remains unstable despite the ceasefire.

Japanese bond yields reminded investors that global financial conditions are still tightening even as U.S. data softens.

Today, SpaceX enters the Nasdaq 100.

Tomorrow brings the FOMC minutes.

The AI trade is debating whether infrastructure spending has gone too far.

Crypto is debating whether ETF demand can offset corporate selling.

The market now has enough information.

The next move depends on which story investors decide matters most.